The Baack Paack

Day one of the 2015 Hawaii Trifecta weekend ended on a good note.
I was happy that I finished, not real happy with my total time, but comparing it to other racers who I respect I was only about 30 minutes behind them – which tells me I could have pushed a bit harder. A common theme when I am racing alone.  The walk back to the car with Tad was slower than I wanted, but I was nursing several hot spots on my left foot, and my right ankle was quite sore from the “falling uphill” stream hike a few hours earlier.
Leaving the venue after meeting Laura was very cool.  I knew VB and Scott would eat that up, as they are both big fans of her accomplishments.  Hiking back and leaving in the car Tad and I were confronted by traffic heading back to the West side of the island.  A LOT of traffic, as in dead stop, move 1/2 a car length, dead stop type of traffic.  Uuuuuuuugggg.   This sitting was allowing my knees to cool down and start to ache badly.  My feet were burning from the time on them, and I contemplated driving barefoot.  After about 20 minutes in the car and moving about a 1/2 a mile, I started making noises like an old man with every move my legs.  I think Tad was picking up on it, and I am sure, didn’t want to hear it for the rest of the trip, so I tried my best to STFU and just deal with it.
Almost two hours later, (yeah two hours!) We arrived at the hotel.  I immediately hobbled to the ABC store across the street from the hotel for dinner which consisted of several pre-made items, including a chicken and orange salad, a turkey wrap, a sushi roll, some seaweed salad, and another smaller chicken and cranberry salad.  I also picked up grapes (for between the Super and Sprint tomorrow) a container of hard boiled eggs (breakfast tomorrow) and container of pineapple (breakfast tomorrow).

At the checkout, the checkout girl asked me, “How many forks you want?”

“Sure!” I replied.

“Ok, how many?”  she asked, holding a fistful of forks in her hand.

“Oh, just one”,  I replied, holding up one finger.

She paused, looked at me, looked at all the packages of food on the counter, looked back at me wide eyed and said “oh…. OK. just one”.

I think I could feel Tad laughing behind me.

“How many forks you want?” became the running joke of the rest of the trip.

My usual post race recovery method includes a bath tub, 12″ of water, and 80# (yes, eighty) pounds of ice in the tub.  Then I slide in and sit there for as long as I can take it, or I melt all the ice away.  In Phoenix, I can melt all the ice away in about 35 minutes, because the air temp in the house is close to 80, and you don’t get cold water in phoenix.  So, the ice melts fast.   That was my plan for this weekend.  However when I got to the hotel, I realized two things.

1. My tiny guest bathroom at home was bigger than my entire room in this hotel
2. There was only a shower

This meant that I had to fall back on the other technique I use to fight muscle soreness aka DOMS (Delayed onset Muscle Soreness).

I don’t really like this technique, but it does work as well.

Get in the shower:

1. Run the water as hot as you can stand and massage your muscles with the shower head (if you have a shower head on a hose, if not, just stand there) for 2-3 minutes.
2. Immediately switch the shower to as cold as it can go, and follow the same steps for 2-3 minutes
3. Rotate back to hot
4. Rotate back to cold
5. Go for 3-4 cycles

This method works by constricting your muscles with the cold water, then opening them back up with the hot.  The goal is to flush them of the lactic acid and everything else out of the muscles.    I really don’t like doing this method, as the shock is tough to tolerate, but it does work.  Before stepping into the shower I told Tad.

“Hey, you might want to turn the TV up pretty loud, as the neighbors might think someone is dying in here from the noise I am going to start making..”

Brutal method – but it works.

Post shower, I ate A LOT, packed the rest for tomorrow, rinsed out my race clothes in the sink so the water color draining out of them was at least as translucent brown and not a thick brown, hung everything on anything I could hang something on, and then went to sleep.  7:25 PM.  The alarm at 4:15 came very quick Sunday morning.  Day two was upon us!

 

Day Two

Surprisingly , I felt really good when I awoke.  I honestly didn’t expect that.  I did my morning routine and lubed up even more than normal with the body glide to fight off chafing, as I found some new hot spots come morning from friction burns.  Out the door at 4:50, Tad and hit the road.  We both noticed that there was a fair amount more traffic on the road, leaving 30 min later than the day before, even on a Sunday, but we still managed quick speeds and a great time to the venue.  This time I DID get my morning coffee, one from the room coffee pot (ennnnnnnhhh, not that great) and another from the fast food joint that has a big yellow arch.  That coffee wasn’t bad and I nursed it all the way to the venue as well as the mile hike to the venue.

The view of the mountains today were a lot clearer, as we didn’t have the fog on the peaks.  A quick shot from the car shows just how rugged these peaks area.

The drive in and parking was easy.  Many racers were smiling this morning in the parking lot, much more than yesterday.  I am sure feeling the same level of accomplishment that I did, and knowing that it would all be over today, a trifecta for some, an Ultra Beast trifecta for others, and in some rare cases.. A double trifecta weekend! (More about that later!)

As we did the day before, when we hit the venue, Tad took off to find out where he was needed for volunteering duties, and I headed to registration.  I showed my headband and was given my Super race packet.  Seeing my sprint packet sitting there, as I asked if I could get that one as well, to save me a trip back to registration after my Super was over.  I was denied.

” I can only give you one at a time, you have to come back for the other”.

I quickly replied.. “So, if I leave and come back in 5 min, you can give it to me then?”

She grinned sheepishly and said… “well, no..”

That is fine, I will come back after the race.   Karma is a strange animal, and I didn’t need it biting me in the a$$ before I even start for the day by being a jerk to a volunteer at the registration tent at 6 AM.

I found another patch of grass and went though the same process as I did the day before, packing the pack with food (about 700 calories worth of Cliff bars, Shot-Bloks, amd Hammer Gels) ensured my Geigerrig was good to go, and making sure the blue wrist band and blue timing chip were secure.  Making my way to my pre-race pit stop I noticed that the Spartan Memory Challenge was no longer at the start of the race.  Darn.  I had Foxtrot-996-3951 memorized for sure by now, that would have been an easy obstacle.
On my way over I spotted Gail, a fellow Arizona spartan racer, and made a point go talk with her.

 

Age, Speed and multiple Trifectas

For any of you that are reading this and asking, what is a Trifecta?  Let me clarify. Spartan race hosts races of three distances (Not including Hurricane Heats & Death races, those are different animals and do not count towards a trifecta.) A Sprint race (3-5 miles) a Super race (7-10 miles) and a Beast race (11-15 miles).  As the distance grows, so does the number of obstacles that the racer will see on the course.  Doing all three distances in one calendar year gives you a “Trifecta”.  Hawaii is special in that you can do all three distances over two days, and earn your trifecta. What is neat is that each medal is color coded (Red=Sprint, Blue=Super, and Green=Beast) and comes with a “pie piece” that when put all together, make the trifecta medal.

 

For a majority of racers a single trifecta is an awesome accomplishment, especially if they are new to racing and moving their bodies for long distances.  For some of us dedicated racers, double and triple trifectas are the norm, two of each race distance in one year (2 sprints, 2 supers, two beasts) for the double trifecta, three of each for the triple.. etc.
I know what you next question is.. what is the record?
Fifteen trifectas in one year.   Fifteen Sprints, Fifteen Supers, Fifteen Beasts in one year. Click on the link to read more about it.  It took him all over the globe to get it done.  Amazing.
Last year was my rookie year of racing and I did a Triple trifecta, with something like 720 penalty burpees over those 9 races.  By November, I was exhausted, finishing the triple in Fenway park at the Stadium Sprint. But, come December, I knew that I could do more, it just had to have the right combination of travel, timing and race combinations to make it work.

 

Meet Gail. (No, I do not have a pic)  Gail is a Spartan racer from Arizona.  She is in her 50’s and usually finishes in the top 10 if not top 5 in the female open class.  She is a bad ass.  I met Gail at the Austin airport after racing the Austin Sprint and Super in May.   I knew there was something about Gail the moment I met her, her quiet reserved strength.  We were both sporting Spartan apparel for the flight home, so it was an easy conversation to start.  Come to find out she was going after the same number of trifectas that I was in 2015, seven.  An instant bond was made.  Two folks well over 20, heck well over 35, both from AZ both running in Open, both going after 7 trifectas.   What were the odds.   We talked racing strategy, which racers we were doing and when.  Finding her here in Hawaii was great.  I re-introduced myself and immediately went to the discussion about trifectas.  Was she still on track?  I had actually managed to increase my count to 8 this year, where was she with her quest?

“Nine” she replied.

“Damn, nine?  Really, NINE?” I replied.

She laughed, “Yeah.. but I have a new grandchild that is going to be born on one of the Beast weekends… so I …. (she paused) .. might have to settle for eight.”

“Yeah, I know right where you are coming from.”  I replied.

She grinned, I know she knew that I knew what she was thinking… we can leave it at that.

We sat and talked for about 15 more minutes and by now it was close to 7 AM, the start of the Beast heats.  We still had 2 hours before our Super wave was released.  A few of her friends walked by and told her they were starting now (they were also running the Super), she looked at me said.. “Hey, you want to start early before the heat?”

“Well, yeah!” I replied.

“Good, you can hide me as I am not wearing my pack for the Super, and everyone in that line needs a pack on for the Beast.” she replied.

“Not a problem”. I replied.

So, we jumped in with about 75 beast racers, and I noticed that we were not alone as other Super racers wanting to get an early start were here as well, heck there must have been 20 of us getting ready to go.  Five minutes later, poof we were off.   I gave Gail a final “go kick some a$$” as she jumped to the front of the pack, shot me a wave- and was gone.

 

Here we go again! Obstacles round 2!

Hitting the stream this time was much easier as there was a lot less people around me and I was able to move faster through the water.  I still almost fell head first a number of times since I forgot where the rocks were, but I managed to stay upright.  Then a race out of the water and through the OUT walls, then the climb up the hill to the cargo net… to find of all folks, Tad,  as the volunteer at the station. Cool!  He managed to snag these two pics of me before and on the cargo net.

  I quickly spoke with him as I was climbing, and he said he would plan on meeting me around the finish line for the Sprint race, so we could find each other.

“Great” I said, I am going be hungry when I am done.

“How many forks you need?” he replied, just as I was stepping off the obstacle at the top of the ridge.

Well played Tad, well played.

 

The shuffle down the backside of this hill was a lot easier today as the ground was dry.  The mud was not present, and we even had some loose sandy dirty.  While still steep, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the day before and I made decent time on the descent.

 

 

 

Reaching the 8 (or 8’6″) wall, there was not a lot of racers here, but I found one guy who was struggling.

“Hey man, give one get one?” I asked, which translates to “I will help you over if you help me” in race speak.

“Sure!” he replied.

He jumped up, grabbed the wall, and I pushed his feet up over my head. He slid over the top and dropped to the other side.

..

….

…..

and I never saw him again.

Nice.   (I hope it rains on you during your burpees today) I thought.

I had to try a few times but I managed to hook my leg and get over this one, and then continue on with the field running as well as the short but steep climbs.   Hitting the turn off flags again, where the sprint and Super / Beast races separate, I again followed the trail to the uphill barb wire crawl and took full advantage of the non barb wire ropes.  I got into a more comfortable bear crawl position (higher from the ground) and flew of the side of the hill, with the rope smacking me in the shoulder and my pack.  Last time for this obstacle!  AROO!

From there, more hills and fields until we got to the bucket carry.  Today, this seemed a bit heavier than yesterday.  I had to stop more frequently on the uphill climb as well as the downhill descent.  As I have all year, I rest the bucket on my thigh when I pause, because it is a lot less energy then setting it down and having to pick it back up again.  I thought a lot about Tahoe, and the Spartan Championships during this carry, as I know there is going to be some super difficult, gut check, obstacles at that race.  I heard horror stories of two 50 (or was it 75#) sand bag carries (two at the same time) up and down this very steep slope in 2014 – and all accounts say that 2015 is going to make 2014 seem easy.

Awesome.  Get moving Jay.

This Super was going faster than I predicted.  I was averaging a 19 minute mile pace which I was very happy about, having raced the day before.  I tried to focus on jogging everything that I could, and power hiking up the hills.  I was never really running, but just constantly moving in order to get the miles done.  Jogging towards the 1/2 point where the Beast takes the right turn up the mountain, and I continue straight on the Super course, I happen to be running with several other Super and Beast racers.   All of us doing the Super were pumping up the Beast runners with info on the climb, as we all did it the day before.  Partly providing them info, partly to mess with their head a bit.

Hey, they are running a beast.. they can take it.

They peeled off to the left and almost in unison all the super racers (myself included) muttered… “poor bastards..”  that generated a lot of laughs as we were all thinking the same thing.  There were not any new surprises on the back side of the Super course, as they were the same obstacles that I covered yesterday, however, today, I did manage to complete the Z wall and not have to do burpees.  This was a great shot in the arm and actually improved my overall race pace to 16 min per mile. Several times I was under a 14 min race pace during this stretch.  Sweet!   The power of positive thought.

I ran down to the main road (where most of the movie set markers were located) and found that today there were even more buses and ATVs out on the tour to see these spots.   One bus in particular stopped talking about the tour and started talking about the Spartan race, as there was a line of us about 8 deep over a spread of about 50 yards jogging down the road.   One particular bus was stopped in the road to allow us to run by, and a few kids were leaning out of the window reaching to give us high fives as we ran by.   I managed a smile as I tapped his hand, his eyes wide with excitement looking at all of us covered in mud, scrapes, bruises, sweat and ripped clothing.  His father chuckled at the excitement of his child.

I thought “Careful dad.. you might soon have a racer on your hands…” as I ran past.

I was making really good time when I arrived at the Rope climb, the obstacle right before the main venue and the last 4 obstacles.

I was around 2 hours and 20 or 30 minutes, and I had budgeted 4 hours for this race.   AWESOME!

I hit the rope climb and again seeing everyone side down from the muddy rope, went right to burpees.  Thirty more added to the list.

Then I ran down the hill to the spear throw.  Redemption time.  Start the streak all over again.  I went to a different spear throw station, followed the same exact steps as yesterday:

“I stepped on the tip to straighten it.  I grabbed up all the cord, stretched it out to remove any knots or tangles and laid it on the other side of the fence, with the grace of someone setting a four course table set for 12 complete with the opposed horizontal fork and spoon over the plate. (What? I have class, I just don’t show it often)  Attention to every detail of the rope to not let it snag on anything.  I found the balance point, grabbed with my chopstick grip, brought it past my left ear, pointed my right foot, squared my hips, raised my right arm, like I had done thousands of times this summer to this point…. and threw. “

The spear hit the right side of the bale and glanced off.  MISS.

30 more burpees for me.   I just shook my head.
“Get them done and get out of here” is what I thought.

Next obstacle up was the Multi bars, and I knew I was going to burpee these out again. Yes, three obstacles in a row, 30 burpees each.
I walked over, touched the station, and walked to the burpee zone.. and started doing them again.  Two days in a row, 90 burpess at the end of the race.  What the heck does this Sprint have in store for me?

My arms at this point were getting tired, my hands were getting cut up from the repeated movement of the burpee to the ground.

All I kept telling myself was “get it done.. get it done”, all my body kept telling me was: “I NEED TO BREATHE STOP!! STOP!!”
It was a struggle, and I would love to say that I knocked them out in record time.. but that would be a lie.  It took me close to 30 min from the time I reached the rope climb and started my soon to be set of 90 burpees to when I finished the last 10 at the multibar.

Am I proud of this, no.

Does it highlight a glaring weakness, you bet your a$$ it does.
However, I can look back forever from this day forward and say:

1. I completed every frickin one of those burpees, chest to ground with a jump at the top
2. I had integrity with not only the rules of the race but with myself
3. I didn’t cheat the race or myself
4. I know what I need to work on to make myself better, stronger and faster

During the spear throw and the Multi bar I saw a LOT of racers skip a lot burpees.   Hundreds of them.  But you know what, that is all about character.

You learn a lot about a person when you watch them – when they think no one is watching. You learn a lot about integrity, accountability as well as honesty.  You learn that the fella who looks like he spends more time at the gym then at home, isn’t everything he wants the world to see, because he skips burpees.   I sleep great at night with my accomplishments, even if they are slow.  Why?  I know I earned them, and I can take that to the grave.

Scaling the dry (thank God) slip wall, I jumped down the other side and ran to the finish, this time using both hands to flash the number 6 at the camera guy, signifying the number of Supers now done this year.  (Jumping and using both hands to flash different symbols is harder than it seems)  I swear he must of thought I was throwing some random gang symbol, for the gang that the 43 year old, white, overweight men belong to…  yet I digress.

 

I shut off the TomTom and noticed I was just over 3 hours for this 7.xx mile course.   Not a speed demon, but I finished it.  Just one sprint left to complete the Trifecta weekend, and my Triple Trifecta for 2015.  Crossing the finish line, I grabbed a 1/2 a banana, then hit the packet pickup to get my next packet, my final packet for the Sprint race, then to bag check for some food and clothing.

 

Sunday was interesting, as several of the obstacles didn’t have volunteers stationed at them.  To some, this means, I don’t have to do the obstacle, or pay the penalty for skipping / failing it. (I am not one of those people) but that leads to a discussion on volunteering at the Hawaii Spartan Trifecta weekend.

As I mentioned in the Beast review, Tad flew out to volunteer at this event to earn free races for 2016.   Racing in the US, if you volunteer a day at an event, you get an free race in the future.  Volunteer two days, get two races.. etc.  For many, this is the only way they can afford to spend the money on races.  Having the season pass, I have not had to volunteer at a race to get a free race, in order to race.  However, I totally see the attraction to the process.

Here is the problem with volunteering in Hawaii.  Hawaii is part of Spartan International, not part of the US Spartan Race events.  They are an affiliate of Spartan Race.  This is why some of the signature obstacles were not present, why Cliff was not a sponsor, etc, etc. Spartan International has a different set of rules and regs as an affiliate that the mainland Spartan Race.  This also applies to volunteers.  This means that volunteering at the Hawaii event does NOT provide credits towards US races.  BOOM.  Shell dropped.

It does apply to Spartan International Races, as well as racing in Hawaii next year, but not for races in the US.   Hearing about this after the Super explained a lot as to why there were so few volunteers on the course.  Yes, the course was still safe, but you could tell that they were sparse with staff on Sunday.   When Tad mentioned this to me, my heart sank for him, at the same time I got a bit angry, as this information was in directly CONFLICT to what was published on the website regarding volunteering and credits.   Tad told me not to worry about it he was going to be OK.  It still burned my toast a bit to hear this news.

After collecting my packet for the Sprint, I hit bag check and found Gail resting in the shade.  She had been done for about an hour and was getting ready to get ready for the next race.   We will continue this story in Part III the Hawaii Trifecta Weekend Sprint race.

Aloha and AROO!